TWO GREAT CONFERENCES SLATED FOR JANUARY...
JANUARY 4 &5 , TAN-TAR-A RESORT, OSAGE BEACH, MISSOURI
Hone your computer
skills and network with other progressive producers at the annual Computers
on the Farm Conference, sponsored by University of Missouri-Columbia College
of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources Department of Agricultural
Economics, Farm Credit Services and Format International, Inc. FBS
president Norm Brown will be presenting sessions demonstrating how digital
pens can be used to transfer hand-written forms to computerized data and
how to convert data from precision farming technologies into production
records. (See "Converting
Harvest Data into Dollars" in last month's e.farmSMART
For more details and to register,
click on this link.
For the latest information click on Super
Powering Profits
PRESENTED BY SUCCESSFUL FARMING, FARM FINANCIAL STANDARDS COUNCIL AND AGRICULTURE ONLINE
| FEATURED
PRESENTERS |
 |
 |
 |
| Dan Looker,
Business Editor, Successful Farming |
Dick Wittman,
Past President, Farm Financial Standards Council |
Ron Swanson,
Past President, Farm Financial Standards Council |
Don't miss an unique opportunity to learn first-hand what managerial accounting
can do in your operation through one of three seminars sponsored by Asgrow
seeds. You'll hear from nationally-know management consultant
and innovative Idaho producer, Dick Wittman, and FBS e.CLIPSE
user and past Farm Financial Standards Council president, Ron Swanson.
By participating in the Super Powering Profits seminar, you will:
| • |
Implement
professional managerial accounting systems in farm business operations. |
| • |
Gain an improved understanding of linkage between financial analysis and strategic decision making. |
| • |
Access strategic and training steps for implementing managerial accounting practices. |
| • |
Understand technical issues and concepts necessary to managerial accounting. |
| • |
Become familiar with the new initiative and guidelines being developed by the Farm Financial Standards Council. |
Agenda: |
| • |
Introduction of Managerial Accounting |
| • |
Application Templates and Models for Applying Managerial Accounting |
| • |
Lunch and Speaker |
| • |
Review Application Templates and Models |
| • |
Software Application Exercise |
Dates and locations: |
| • |
Augustana College, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, January 28, 2008 |
| • |
i wireless Center, Moline, Illinois, January 29, 2008 |
| • |
· Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, January 30, 2008 |
To register or download a brochure click on Super
Powering Profits.
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...AND A SPECIAL CONFERENCE FOR CROP GROWERS IN FEBRUARY
ZERO IN ON CROP$HOP.08: THE SEMINAR WHERE ACRES, BUSHELS AND DOLLARS INTERSECT
Only one seminar drills
down to the "financial truth" behind real-world crop production and marketing
practices: CROP$HOP, Tuesday, February 12th,
one day before the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, Kentucky. Watch
your mail for more details.
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LIFECYCLE BUDGET AVAILABLE
NOW—FREE OFFER ENDS DECEMBER 31, 2007
 |
FBS Systems, Inc. has
released the latest generation of interactive planning and performance
monitoring systems. The LifeCycle Budget is designed to
tightly integrate with the FBS management information suite.
Most agricultural budgets are built on custom spreadsheets or rigid, specialized financial packages. For example, FBS Systems introduced the first computerized ag financial system, Coordinated Financial Statements for Agriculture (CFS), in the early 1980s and followed it with Agricultural Financial Reporting and Analysis (AFRA) a few years later.
Spreadsheets, while flexible and expandable, are challenging to design, hard to maintain and difficult to tie back to accounting and other management software.
Financial packages generally adopt a "one size fits all" approach to planning and analysis. As a result, users are locked into pre-defined definitions and logic. As producers transition to full accrual accounting they often find these external packages redundant and their interface with accounting cumbersome.
That's why we were determined to make the LifeCycle Budget a whole
new experience:
There's virtually no setup for existing FBS clients—the software conforms and adapts to your current and future accounts, cost/profit centers, divisions and definitions.
Budget data parallel real events, allowing you to model and compare
quantities as well as dollars.
Because it's a component of the FBS Integrated SeRVware suite the LifeCycle
Budget tightly integrates with Crop Audit and Smart
Feeder management modules as well as TransAction Plus accounting.
 |
| LifeCycle
Budget tightly integrates with FBS accounting and production management
modules |
Forward-thinking managers will appreciate LifeCycle Budget's open-architecture
platform, integrated design and flexible reporting. But there's
more.
FBS Systems is dedicated to expanding the functionality of LCB
just as we done with the rest of our software offerings since we began
serving agriculture in 1980. In a typical year we add 400 program
improvements based largely on customer input. In the coming
months we will be updating current FBS financial, inventory and production
reports to run from the LCB database, allowing you to better manage
each segment of your operation and even evaluate long-term results from
any decision. Some of these options will appear automatically through
periodic updates, others as a part of annual version upgrades and a few
specialized reports as add-on modules.
How do you get started?
If you've installed TransAction Plus 7.9, you already have a demo (non-printing/exporting) copy of LifeCycle Budget running on your computer. (Just go to Input | Budgets | LifeCycle Budget.) Prior to exploring this program we recommend a) that you read the on-line help file to orient yourself, and b) download the latest FBS software updates over the Internet (Utilities | Check for Updates).
We're committed to providing free education and training for new LifeCycle
Budget users this year through the following channels:
| • |
A
monthly tutorial series in this newsletter |
| • |
A series of "webinars." The first ones are scheduled for Thursday, January 3rd at 2:00 pm CST and Monday, January 21st at 2:00 pm. To participate, e-mail norm@fbssystems.com. |
| • |
Free
registration for LifeCycle Budget users at CROP$HOP.08,
February 12th, in Louisville, Kentucky. (See
article above.) |
LifeCycle Budget is free for the following: |
| • |
Any FBS user who has a current license to AFRA. |
| • |
Anyone who purchases FBS software or upgrades valued at $995.00 or greater by December 31, 2007. |
To view the LifeCycle Budget
product sheet and sample reports, click on this link.
To purchase and activate your LifeCycle Budget, call the FBS Sales Department at 800.437.7638.
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CHRISTMAS GREETINGS
FROM THE FBS HOME TEAM!
Thank you for allowing us to serve you in 2007. We're honored to be the financial hub for North America's leading agricultural producers, and we're excited about 2008. Nevertheless, our real hope and joy comes through the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who changed the world and our destiny nearly 2000 years ago. S.D.G.
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|
SOFTWARE
Q&A – WITH Q'S FROM YOU, OUR CLIENTS!
Send
us your questions/problems–be they short, long, simple or downright
frustratin'!–about SeRVware
and we'll handle them right "on the air" for the benefit of all.
|
Q.
|
What year-end procedures do I need to do? |
| A.
|
Here
are the accounting reports you should check at the end of
each accounting period (and especially at year-end).
| Tip: |
You can "drill-down" and edit entries from any report screen. |
| 1. |
Be
sure your Check Reconciliation Report agrees
with your latest bank statement. |
| 2. |
Run
a User-Defined Report for undefined entries (check
the undefined box in the upper right of the report parameter
screen). The report should be blank. Edit
any entries that appear. |
| 3. |
Be
sure your Trial Balance and Balance Sheet
"balance." ."(At Tax/Cash, Financial
Report Types and Levels 1-3 for Entries in Period.) |
| 4. |
Run
a Ledger Account Detail Report recapped by centers.
Be sure all the centers in the recap have been coded
to the appropriate ledger account. |
| 5. |
If
you have Accounts Payable and/or Accounts
Receivable modules, compare the A/P and/or
A/R Detail Report with the total in the Accounts
Payable and/or Accounts Receivable ledger accounts. |
| Tip: |
Use separate ledger accounts for any A/P and A/R entries that are not entered through the A/P or A/R modules. |
| 6. |
Run
a Ledger Detail Report for all accounts. |
| Tip: |
Set up and store a report "macro" for each type of ledger account (standard, money borrowed, livestock, capital livestock purchases, capital purchases, hired labor, and crop purchase/sale ledger accounts) by moving columns in the desired order. |
| 7. |
If
you use the Payroll module and pay taxes on a cash basis,
on December 31 you need to make a Reversing Journal
Entry to "back out" the accrual posting of payroll taxes
expensed and accrued to employer's FICA, Medicare, FUTA,
SUTA and made to a pension or cafeteria plan that are
not yet paid. (Just check the Reversing
Entry box when you roll over to the new year.) On
the first day of the new year the entry will reverse
itself. |
| 8. |
You
can begin the new accounting year any time by going
to File|Change Company and selecting the new
year. Ending balances from asset, liability
and owner equity accounts are automatically "rolled"
into "Beginning Balance" entries in the new year. Once
you have closed the current year, go to Utilities |Create Beginning Balance to "re-roll" balances. |
| 9. |
Calculate
Retained Earnings. |
|
a. |
If
you haven't done so already, go to Setup|Accounting|General
Information and select the retained earnings account. |
|
b. |
After
you have rolled balances into the new year (Step 8)
go to Input|General and under Accounting Input
and double left click on Calculate Retained Earnings. Confirm
the Retained Earnings Account and choose the first month
of your fiscal year. Then click on Calculate. |
| 10. |
If you are using Crop Audit and/or Smart Feeder, verify that your crop, livestock, crop inputs, feed and drug inventories are tied out with your physical inventories. |
|
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Page
CLIENT'S CORNER
• In The News!
Jamie Tosh, Tosh Farms, Henry, Tennessee, graced the cover
of the Pork Exec November 2007 supplement of PORK Magazine
and was featured in a Q&A session with editor Marlys Miller entitled,
"A Next Generation Pork Executive." Read about his outlook
on the U.S. pork industry and his 20,000 sow / 8,500 acre family
operation by clicking
this link.
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sales@fbssystems.com
800.437.7638
|
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